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April 12th, 2018 by Joe Heitzeberg • Read 15,257 times • 2 min read
A few years ago, Chef Mori was a chef at a Yakiniku House (a traditional Japanese beef grill) in Osaka when he first heard about Olive Wagyu: a rare Wagyu beef produced by feeding inawara rice straw, Italian rye grass, and toasted olive lees to Kuroge Washu cattle. It's only raised by a handful of producers in Japan and originated on a remote island called Shodoshima in Japan's smallest province. It piqued Chef Mori's interest, and would...
April 10th, 2018 by Joe Heitzeberg • Read 16,206 times • less than one min read
We created a handy infographic to answer all the questions you ever had about Olive Wagyu. Enjoy! You can read more about Olive Wagyu here.
April 3rd, 2018 by Joe Heitzeberg • Read 8,344 times • 1 min read
In October 2017, I met with Kagawa Prefecture's Governor and senior staff. Watch below or check out the transcript of my speech in Japanese, which outlined my journey from living on a farm homestay in Hokkaido 20 years ago to a current milestone: bringing Olive Wagyu from Japan to America. What follows is an explanation of how this came about in the first place. Soonafter we started Crowd Cow, friends and early customers asked, "will you...
March 29th, 2018 by Joe Heitzeberg • Read 11,351 times • less than one min read
When we started Crowd Cow almost 3 years ago, we wanted to experience the "absolutely incredible-tasting" beef from small, family-run farms that our mutual friend had told us about, and to make that accessible to everyone. What we didn't realize at the time, is that beef itself is every bit as diverse, rich and interesting as coffee, wine, chocolate and microbrew. As we met with farmers, butchers, chefs and modern meat enthusiasts, we...
March 28th, 2018 by Joe Heitzeberg • Read 20,354 times • 1 min read
If you’re a true steakophile, you might have heard of Kobe beef. But even if you’re extremely in the know when it comes to exquisite steak, you’ve probably never heard of Olive Wagyu. It’s a small-batch variety of steak produced only in the far reaches of Japan’s Kagawa Prefecture, and raised on a diet of caramelized pressed olives. It takes the insane marbling of Japanese beef, delivers even higher-than-normal levels of healthy...
March 14th, 2018 by Joe Heitzeberg • Read 7,076 times • less than one min read
Our friends at How Ya Derrin' BBQ has been knocking it out of the park on the competitive barbeque circuit with Crowd Cow beef! How Ya Derrin' is made up of Gil Martinez and Benny Rocha, two friends from South Texas who wanted to partner with Crowd Cow because we all share the values of sourcing the highest-quality meats. It made sense for us because Crowd Cow carries the cream of the crop when it comes to high quality beef. -Gil...
March 14th, 2018 by Joe Heitzeberg • Read 7,219 times • 1 min read
Last week I was invited to participate on a panel with the CEOs of Beyond Meat and PRE Brands at Natural Products Expo West in Anaheim, an annual trade show in the natural, organic and healthy products industry, bringing together over 80,000 industry professionals and 3,100 exhibits. The panel was called What's Your Beef? Consumer-Driven Innovations in Meat and our moderator, Anubhav Goel, led us through a lively discussion of each company's...
March 5th, 2018 by Joe Heitzeberg • Read 98,204 times • 2 min read
What is this “Wagyu” we’re talking about? Let me break it down for you. There are four breeds of “Wagyu” -- Japanese cattle, that is -- that are indigenous to Japan. One of them, Kuroge Washu, is genetically predisposed to high levels of marbling. It’s really hard to get authentic Wagyu 100% from the Kuroge Washu breed directly from Japan. But we didn’t just source authentic Wagyu from this Pacific Rim nation. We sniffed out the rarest of...
February 23rd, 2018 by Joe Heitzeberg • Read 10,584 times • less than one min read
On February 28, Crowd Cow is offering a limited amount of A5 Wagyu imported directly from Japan. A5 Wagyu contains higher proportions of healthy omega-3 fatty acids than Angus steak and is legendary for umami flavor, filigreed marbling, and fat so soft it melts against your skin. Our A5 Wagyu comes from the Kuroge Washu breed -- one of four native Wagyu breeds in Japan and the only one genetically predisposed to fine-grained intramuscular...
February 19th, 2018 by Joe Heitzeberg • Read 10,631 times • 5 min read
Small producers in this country often face a tough choice: send their cattle off the auction yard for a cut-rate price, or raise the animals to maturity and take on the often overwhelming expense of marketing, logistics and support to sell their beef directly to eaters. The lure of selling direct is great: farmers could earn a higher price per pound for their meat than what they earn through auction. But there are several challenges for a...
